Heretofore, accumulator plates and the separators were deposited individually on a continuously running conveyor chain, and were only stacked at the end of this conveyor section with the aid of a complicated accepting device to form a set of plates.
It is the object of the invention to create an apparatus for forming stacks of accumulator plates which makes possible an automatic, rapid and simple formation and alignment of stacks, and the removal of the stacks. In an apparatus of the kind referred to, the object is achieved according to the invention in that the conveyor device is provided with a device for transferring sets of plates, which device can be moved in the vertical direction between, in relation to the conveyor device, a raised position, in which the transfer device can be charged alternately and cyclically from magazines positioned, in pairs, opposite one another with a negative plate, a separator plate, a positive plate and a separator plate, the transfer device being capable of being lowered stepwise in accordance with the height of a set of plates into a lowered transfer position, in which the transfer device transfers the stack of plates assembled on it from a predetermined number of sets of plates to the intermittently movable conveyor device.